Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

General Scheme of the Greyhound Industry Bill 2017: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Head 14 deals with significant issues related to rules and regulations for greyhound tracks. This provision grants extensive powers to the board to make regulations. In summary, the measure extends the scope of regulatory powers to kennel hands who were excluded, for some reason, from the list contained in the previous legislation. The measure refers to the operation of electronic surveillance. I do not think there was electronic surveillance in 1958. Such surveillance is now a control function at greyhound racing tracks. The provision also refers to powers to restrict the use of mobile phones in defined areas at greyhound racing tracks. Again, the provision is a result of modern technology.

Head 14, page 23, contains strong powers on the introduction of regulatory powers for doping.